Russia intensified its offensive on Tuesday against the last pockets of resistance in the Ukrainian region of Luganskin the eastern Donbass basin, and said she was determined to achieve all her “goals” in a war that entered its fourth month. Ukraine managed to push the invading forces away from kyiv and Kharkovbut acknowledges “difficulties” in containing the offensive in the Donbass, which includes the Lugansk and Donetsk regions, already partially controlled since 2014 by pro-Russian separatists.
“We do not chase any deadline. All the goals set by President Vladimir Putin will be met. It cannot be otherwise because the truth, including the historical truth, is on our side,” he assured Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council. After a first month of lightning offensive, the Russian “special military operation” in Ukraine has been characterized more by Russian withdrawals from northern kyiv and the outskirts of Kharkov than by renowned victories.
Russian Defense Minister Serguei Shoigu said that Moscow “will continue with the special military operation until all its objectives are met, regardless of the enormous Western aid to the kyiv regime or the unprecedented pressure of the sanctions” applied against his country. . On Monday the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyhad warned: “The next weeks of war will be difficult”.
Luhansk in the crosshairs
Russian troops currently focus their attack on Luganska bastion of resistance in the east, and try to encircle the neighboring cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported fierce fighting very close to these two cities, about 100 kilometers northwest of Lugansk, in the towns of Popasna and Bakhmut. In the last hours, Heavy shelling destroyed schools and hit refineries and chemical plants in the region considered Ukraine’s industrial powerhouse.
Although the bombardments are constant, many inhabitants refuse to leave. “People don’t want to leave,” lamented the deputy mayor of Bajmut, Maxim Sutkoviy, in front of a half-empty bus planned to move civilians away from the fighting. The city of Severodonetsk is bombed “24 hours a day” by the Russians, who “use the scorched earth tactic,” Lugansk Governor Sergei Gaidai said, reporting four deaths in a bombardment.
Securing control in the east
The Mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boichenkoaccused the “Russian occupation forces” to behave like a “terrorist state”in a virtual intervention before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. After the fall of Mariupol, Severodonetsk would be a valuable war trophy for Moscow in the Donbass.
Russia would thus strengthen its control of the eastafter establishing the land link between Donbass and the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014. The first step to achieve this, in the first days of the war, was the capture of Kherson, in southern Ukraine and northern Crimea .
The southern front currently seems stable, although the Ukrainians reported an “advance” of their divisions “in the direction of Kherson, through the Mikolaiv region”. In Kharkov the metro started working again, after serving for weeks as an air-raid shelter and where many displaced people are still staying.
In the early hours of Tuesday three Russian Iskander missiles hit near Kharkov, the second largest in the country, causing significant damage to a power station but causing no casualties. The Iskander are supersonic cruise missiles with a range that according to some sources can reach five hundred kilometers, which have high precision and can overcome anti-aircraft defenses.
In parallel, the Russians claimed to have destroyed with air-launched missiles a large store of 155-millimeter shells for US M-777 howitzers, known as Howitzers. In his morning war part, the Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, pointed out that the Russian attack took place in Rozdolivka, in Donbass.
In three months thousands of people, civilians and soldiers, died without an accurate balance of victims. In Mariupol alone, the authorities estimate 20,000 deaths. The office of Ukraine’s attorney general, Iryna Venediktova, denounced that 234 children have died and that 433 have suffered injuries throughout the conflict, while the Kremlin admits “significant losses”.
Ukraine continues to demand more weapons
While the combat on the ground seems endless, the Ukrainian government urges Western countries to send it more weapons. Among the material delivered so far is the Harpoon anti-ship missile system promised by Denmark, which could help Ukraine break the blockade against the Russian naval off the Black Sea port of Odessa. This blockade paralyzes the export of millions of tons of wheat, with fears that it will generate a world food crisis.
The war in Ukraine sent energy prices skyrocketing and is drawing new frontiers on the security map in Europe, after Sweden and Finlandtwo countries traditionally not militarily aligned, submit their candidatures for NATO membership.